David Dewhurst tops pack in new Senate poll  but ‘don’t know’ is the real leader

If Texas’ 2012 U.S. Senate primaries were held today, the nominee for each party would be “Don’t Know.”

A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released today found that 52 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Democrats say they don’t know who they’ll support to replace retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

AP photo

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst

Among living candidates &#151 or, more accurately, potential candidates &#151 the leader was Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Among Republicans, 27 percent said they’d vote for Dewhurst if the Republican primary for Senate were held today.

Hutchison recently said she wouldn’t seek reelection. Dewhurst has not announced his plans.

Dewhurst’s spokesman, Mike Walz, said the lieutenant governor is humbled by the outpouring of support he’s received from across the state. Walz said Dewhurst’s effort is focused on his current job and issues like balancing the Texas budget without raising taxes.

“After the session, he’s made it clear that he intends to explore running for the Senate, but right now his focus is on the legislative session,” Walz said.

While 45 percent said they’d vote in the Republican primary in 2012, 37 percent said they’d vote in the Democratic primary. Sixteen percent said if that primary was today they’d choose former Rep. Chris Bell, 13 percent said former Rep. Chet Edwards, 12 percent said former Comptroller John Sharp and 59 percent didn’t know.

Other polling topics included what direction people think the country and Texas are headed in, how people think today’s national economy ranks against last year’s and how people rate President Barack Obama’s performance.

From a group where 48 percent said they were “extremely interested” in politics and public affairs and 12 percent followed the Texas legislative session “extremely closely,” 59 percent said the country is on the wrong track. Twenty-six percent said the country is headed in the right direction, and 15 percent didn’t know.

Forty-one percent said Texas is headed in the right direction along with another 41 percent who said it’s headed on the wrong track, and 18 percent didn’t know.

When it came to the country’s economy this year compared to a year ago, 30 percent think it’s about the same, 24 percent think it’s somewhat better off and another 24 percent think it’s somewhat worse off, and 17 percent said it’s a lot worse off.